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And while the most recent slip isn’t quite as cringe-worthy, it is certainly indicative of how drastically perceptions have changed in recent years.

Speaking with uncharacteristic solemnity to a group of college students, Biden asserted that they were the most incredible generation of Americans, ever.

“Your generation and the 9/11 generation before you are the most incredible group of Americans we have ever, ever, ever produced,” he said.

“You volunteer more than my vaulted generation in the ’60′s…” he said, before praising those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He continued: “Folks…your generation is on the cusp of the most incredible change in world history, not because of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, but because of the time in which you live. Your generation is going to live through us being able to make solar energy as cheap as gas–or coal, excuse me, coal” [Emphasis added].

Some are skeptical of the fact that this yet-unproven generation is the best group of Americans the country has ever produced…but perhaps it’s a preemptive declaration, like Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize?

Still others laugh at Biden’s innocent slip that solar energy will be as cheap as gas, or rather, “coal– excuse me– coal,” in the students’ lifetimes. What happened to Obama’s assertion– when answering a question about coal– that under his plan “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket,” critics wonder?

According to an April U.S. News article, gas prices have doubled, in many places, during Obama’s first term.

Update: Glenn Beck and his radio crew discussed — and poked fun at — Biden’s speech on the air this morning. What do you think? Does the vice president sound medicated? Take the poll, below: